The invention relates to mirror assemblies for attachment to motor vehicles, and more particularly to multiple mirror assemblies that determine when it is safe for a passing vehicle to pull from a passing lane into the driving lane ahead of a passed vehicle.
A problem continually faced by persons who drive large vehicles, such as motorhomes pulling trailers or large trucks pulling trailers, is that when such persons attempt to pass a slower vehicle, they have considerable difficulty in judging when the passing vehicle has completely passed the other vehicle and when it it safe to pull back into the right-hand lane ahead of the passed vehicle. Conventional outside rearview mirrors located on the passenger side of the vehicle ordinarily are aimed so that they bring into the view of the driver the distant highway behind the vehicle. Such conventional outside rearview mirrors only reflect the image of the vehicle being passed to the eye of the driver of the passing vehicle if the passed vehicle is more than about 80 to 100 feet behind such mirrors. It is very difficult even for a skilled driver of a truck or motorhome, especially one pulling a long trailer, to judge the distance from the rear end of his trailer to the front end of the vehicle being passed. The fact that large vehicles generally accelerate slowly and take quite a long time to safely pass a slower vehicle, especially on a slight grade, and in view of the fact that it is difficult for a driver to simultaneously judge the approach speed of distant oncoming vehicles, often makes passing of a slower vehicle a needlessly risky undertaking.
Although there are quite a variety of known vehicle mirrors, none are adapted to providing a clear indication of when it is safe for a passing vehicle to pull into the lane in front a vehicle being passed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,480,350 discloses a mirror assembly attached outside of the driver's window of a vehicle. This mirror includes three plane mirrors within a unitary frame, two of which are adjustable independently of the third. The teaching of this reference is to provide a rear vision mirror assembly that is capable of providing rearward views of substantially the entire roadway behind the associated vehicle, i.e., the vehicle to which the mirror assembly is attached. No teaching is provided as to judging the distance from the rear end of the associated vehicle to the front end of a following vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 3,712,715 discloses a similar mirror assembly including three mirrors mounted on a common support structure to give full rear vision coverage of the sides of the associated vehicle. The foregoing references, and also U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,644,021; 2,605,676 2,649,028; 3,021,756; 3,104,274; 3,375,053; and 4,293,191 are deemed to be generally illustrative of the state-of-the-art of vehicle rearview mirrors.